After more than a decade of working digital, I've got a strong desire to get back to some oil painting. My friends have counseled start small, but I've decide to start big so I've laid out a composition that is essentially 4 feet by 6 feet. I figure why spend time creating a dozen small disasters when the same can be learned (or relearned) with one gigantic disaster.

My inspiration for my personal art has always been on a continuum somewhere between Francis Bacon and Pieter Bruegel the Elder... This piece is entitled, "The Irreverent Rapture."

tech notes: I laid out the composition in Photoshop and then had a 4' x 6' print made on heavy matte paper. I adhered the print to a wood panel using Yes glue. I then applied 5 coats of acrylic matte finish. Finally, I diminished the line drawings with a mixture of the Liquin medium and Titanium white.

I don't think I'm the first, but perhaps one of the first at this large size. The glue used. "Yes" glue. is an archival paste-like glue that does not buckle paper, as most glues do. I believe it was initially developed for the book manufacturing industry. I've been using it for awhile and am impressed. Most fully stocked art supply stores carry it, though it is not well known, perhaps because it gets classed into the crafts category.

Plywood... I used 1/4" hi-end plywood with 1 x 3 bracing clamped and glued to the back

Here's the stage it's currently at... just after painting the titanium white with medium. The guidelines are quite faint, as i wanted them to be.

The reason I guessed 1/2" was because without something on the back 1/4" would curve with stuff glued to it. But you got that covered.

When I worked at a trade show company they would make those counters with doors on the back. They apply a laminate (formica) to the exposed side then glue a backing sheet to the inside face to prevent warping. A backing sheet is what the color layer of a laminate is applied to.

best of luck and perserverance then... Only comment I have a this point is that looking at the colour sketch, I hope you won't be darkening your tones by just adding black as it looks like in the sketch. It gives a kind of lifeless look to the colours.

...and BTW, I only used it for the car tires in the digital... If black tones rather than dark bowns, greens and blues are not showing on your monitor, it might need some color adjustment_________________HonePie.comtumblr blogdigtal art

heh, I think my monitor is fine. There were places where I felt the colours looked dull: the hood of the car, the tree trunk in the foreground, the preacher's robes etc. But, of course, judgement reserved for the final product...

understood. I didn't spend a lot of time on the digital mockup, 'cause that is all it was... a mockup to essentially rough out the color distribution and lighting which is not meant to be dramatic... pretty much a grey overcast day type of lighting with no particularly strong direction._________________HonePie.comtumblr blogdigtal art

Fast... I wish! Working the process in oils for me is about a zillion times slower than digital. I'm still working on the underpainting. Don't have as much time as I'd like to work on it... but even when I do, it is slow going....